The Beerists Mini 6 – Drink Local is Bullshit

This was one of our Patreon Exclusive Beerists Mini episodes in which Rubio tries his best to articulate why the “Drink Local” mantra is complete bullshit. I decided to make put it on the public feed after I was told by several Patreon Patrons that more people needed to hear it.

If you’re interested in getting more extra content, become a Patron of the show on Patreon. Listener donations are extremely important, as they are the only way we keep this show going and growing. I make these extra episodes as often as I can. Here’s what’s out so far, with a few more coming this week!

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Do you get a second or third Weihenstephaner or do you try the ‘bad’ local brewery’s new beer? Do you label a local brewery ‘bad’ and then never try their beer again, or support them by trying every one of their new beers at least once?

Buy Local doesn’t mean “Only Buy Local” – it means, where you can, when you can, weigh the locality of a good in your decision on which good to purchase. Local Adirondack chairs can be rough and slightly squeaky and made out of non-local wood but you would still buy them over a store bought chair because the old guy who makes them lives on your street. Or local honey might not have the ‘perfect’ flavors that you expect from store bought honey, off flavors and stuff, it’s more expensive for sure, but because it is unique and produced locally you still buy it from time to time at the farmers market, or you get your kid a few honey sticks from the booth.

Drink Local can be carried to an extreme where it is bullshit (i.e. some hipster in a bar calling out a stranger on their drink choice), but in the way the phrase was intended to be heard in, it is a helpful reminder to a lot of people that the local 7 BBL brewery notices and appreciates when people buy their products.

Anthony Moore

Hey John! Name’s Anthony, first time listener, here in San Diego. Just stumbled upon The Beerists.

Love the podcast, and I really liked the discussion (I know this was produced like, a million years ago). In San Diego, everyone is all about “Drink Local.” Fortunately, we have great breweries here and I could probably drink locally brewed beer for years and still be pretty satisfied. However, if I lived somewhere else where the breweries weren’t that good, but were “local,” then I wouldn’t want to. Because on the other hand, I firmly believe that if the beer isn’t awesome/excellent, then don’t buy it. I always feel let down when I make the trek to a new brewery I’ve heard of, and try a flight and find that not only is the beer not my favorite, and it’s actually fairly BAD…I won’t go back. Not until they get their stuff together.

So, I still support Drink Local (although I really liked your point – most of the ingredients aren’t made anywhere NEAR here, so how “local” is it?), but I generally only give a new brewery or beer one, maybe a couple more tries before I say “nope. it’s not good beer, and there’s an abundance of other good beer, so I’m not trying that again,” even if it is local.

Glad I found you guys!

Nate Johnson

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Every week, John Rubio and his co-hosts Grant Davis, Anastacia Kelly, and Mike Lambert, meet to taste, discuss, and judge five different beers from all over the world. Part beer appreciation, part drunken comedy, it’s the only beer podcast the A.V. Club calls, “consistently illuminating and amusing.”

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